Make no doubt about it, this Fall and Holiday season is stacking up to be one of the most expensive times for gamers ever, as there seem to be a multitude of titles to choose from. Going on that same notion, it also appears to be the year of the sequel as we see installments such as Far Cry 2, Fable 2, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Fallout 3, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway, Project: Origin, Saint's Row 2, Gears of War 2, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Prince of Persia, and Sacred 2: Final Angel all coming out this quarter.

Now, doesn't that seem like quite a list to choose from? Well, there's a downside to that because I've only named off sequels so far, and I've also only named games that were coming out for the Xbox 360. Think about it, while not all of the titles I've just listed might interest you, you have to admit that quite a few of those numbers are games that you'd definitely like to spend some quality time with. While normally I'd look at a list as long as this for sequels and be kind of disheartened by the fact that they'd probably be nothing too original, one quick glance around the net through different previews and interviews with the developers will tell you the exact opposite. Games such as Mercenaries 2 or Fable 2, while carrying some of the concepts from their original counterparts, are robust in comparison due to the technology of today's console systems and the creativeness of today's developers, but let us not get too carried away about the different games just yet, let's look at the list of others coming out under new IPs for the different developers.

This list includes games like Too Human, FaceBreaker, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Lego Batman, Rise of the Argonauts, Dead Space, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Tom Clancy's End War, James Bond: Quantum of Solace, and Left 4 Dead. Now that isn't every game coming out for the Xbox 360, but they're just some of the bigger titles to look forward to this upcoming season.

Even with all these big time releases, one thing to keep track of though is what's being released over Xbox Live Arcade. With the recent release of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, I've been constantly plugging away hours trying to one up my score each time. Taking what made the original so great and expanding on every component; the developers did a great job with this sequel as far as I can tell. Other games released on Live Arcade to check out would be Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Braid, and if you're looking forward to Fable 2, you should be picking up the Pub Games. These four Arcade titles alone could keep you busy for quite some time to come.

There just really isn't a reason to be sad when being a gamer around the holidays unless you're constantly looking down at the stack of cash in your wallet draining from week to week over these upcoming releases. In the coming weeks, we'll take a closer look at these games as they're about to be released and see how well they stacked up to people's expectations. But until then...

SadExchange

After taking quite a long hiatus, due to the nature of the site not being finished, we're back to talk some games. Now, I realize that I reported back in December that we'd be back this past January, but due to real life getting extremely busy, and the programmer, DJ IZ, wanting to get everything as perfect as could be when we went live again, it took awhile longer than expected, but no worries, we're back and adding more content to the overall site with the original music, games, and movie sections, but also books and a new forum to converse about anything pertaining to the site or anything happening in the real world. But I don't have to tell you everything that's new to the site, check it out yourself. Take a spin around and let us know what you think. Please keep in mind there's a few kinks to iron out yet, as we're still getting everything all together, but soon enough.


As far as the games section goes, reviews will be forthcoming including reviews for Assassin's Creed, God of War, Conan, Crackdown, plus many more to come after that. On my off time from the site, when not being pulled down by "The Man," I've been keeping my time busy with games like Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, Battlefield: Bad Company, Space Siege, Legend: Hand of God, Bully: Scholarship Edition, plus many other titles to keep me going through the summer's long drought of game releases; so keep tuned in from now on to get the info you need for the games you want. With such an expansive list of AAA titles coming out from now till the end of the year, you'll have plenty of choices to choose from when deciding what to do with your holiday season, and I'm hoping I can help you make the best decision for you with news, reviews, and blogs from now on.


But if you're still waiting for a game to come out in the Fall and need something to tide you over till then, check out my Top Ten lists of years past for different consoles and the PC to see what'll be worth your time….


SadExchange

World in Conflict - A massive title trying to make its name in a genre already studded with long standing franchises, World in Conflict shouts out its name with authority. Creating an engaging experience through an impressive, matched with some great voice-acting, but not to be done is the graphics component of this game, where the huge battles are sprawled out across large detailed landscapes. Creating a realistic battleground with destructible environments in a world where the Berlin Wall never fell and Russia is massing a large scale against Western Europe, World in Conflict will have you playing mission after mission from beginning to end throughout the campaign's lengthy 14 single player missions. And when you're finished with that, you still have the superb multiplayer part of the game to keep you occupied for weeks to come. The multiplayer side of the game is fast paced, and well balanced where you'll be spending hours online perfectly your own strategy on how to take your opponent.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - With each new installment into the series, it seems like the Call of Duty series keeps getting better in not only overall quality, but also gameplay. With this latest game in the franchise, the series takes a modern twist and it does it well. With an intense campaign that has you crossing the globe from the middle of the ocean on a sealiner to the ghost town near Chernobyl. Although the single player campaign may be a little on the short side, not enough can be said about the depth that's in the multiplayer component of this game. With an already great track record with the online multiplayer, Infinity Ward adds something more with an experience system that has you unlocking different ****s and weapons when playing online with others. A different take on the importance on playing more and becoming better online, Call of Duty 4 rewards the player well with their multiplayer component and this feature will keep players and fans of the genre playing for hours on end.

Crysis - Some may be asking, why would Crysis be on this list, it's just another first person shooter that does everyone else a normal FPS would do, and I would say you're mostly right, but you just can't look past the graphics in this game and how realistic the environments look. Yes, the gameplay isn't leagues above other games of the same genre like the graphical content, but they're certainly solid in their own respect. This game does have polish in regards to the actual over gameplay and you have to respect that, but no other game has been able to express their atmosphere like Crysis, mainly due to the graphics and physics engine. Gamers have to be impressed with what Crytek has done and obviously look forward to what they might do in the future. One can only imagine where we go from here with the graphics component after this game's release.

The Witcher - Coming out of nowhere from a first time developer, The Witcher brings back the role-playing game genre with force. With an amazing storyline, engaging combat system and an alchemy system that's unparalleled in any other game, CD Projekt took a license created by Andrzej Sapkowski, a Polish writer, and made a very impressive role-playing game. Hours of engaging gameplay are yours to be had, not only because it's a lengthy game, or because of the replay value with multiple endings and different dialogue trees, but also because of the toolkit and the mods that fans will be creating for this game. Made from an Advanced Aurora Engine, the same engine that ran Neverwinter Nights, the developers breathe new life into this aging graphical engine and makes The Witcher shine in the mist of the some of the best looking games coming out today.

The Orange Box – You get the award winning Half Life 2, plus the two following episodes that progress the story even further, a new ****of gameplay from Portal which one can only imagine where the community will take its abilities, and finally Team Fortress 2, a multiplayer team-oriented experience where the different ****s actually matter in the overall gameplaying experience. You'd be hard pressed to have never heard of the Half Life series, but if you haven't had the chance to play it, treat yourself and get The Orange Box. First person shooter fans will see the quality and time that Valve took in creating each component of this package in the first few hours and will then be able to play for unlimited amounts of hours when dealing with the thousands of fan created games based off of the Source Engine.

Gears of War - First coming to the Xbox 360, then onto the PC with some added content, Gears of War brings the dirty corridor fighting to the mouse and keyboard. With an entire extra chapter that flows smoothly into the over storyline, the developers made this Gears of War look great on today's computers with larger resolutions and advanced details for those computers with the horse power. From start to finish, the gameplay is solid with great sound, graphics, voice acting and sound, and a decent lengthy campaign, but you can't forget about the multiplayer which will give you the replay value you've been looking for from an action game.

Bioshock - Somewhat of a spiritual successor to System Shock 2, Bioshock becomes one of those games that you can play over and over again, not only for how beautiful the underwater metropolis of Rapture looks, but also because of the impressive storyline and voice acting is within the games fifteen or so hours. With an impressive physics engine that shines whether you're using your inferno power to light your enemies on fire or your telekinesis power to throw objects around the artistically designed environment, Bioshock gives player multiple ways to progress through the game. Just because it seems a little bit more linear than most modern role-playing games, doesn't mean that the game doesn't have replayability, because there are just so many ways to take out different enemies whether you want to run and gun or use the environment for your needs. Bioshock is a game that gives first person shooter gamers the hope to have overall great quality artistic games in a world where developers seem to rinse and repeat each year with installments in their age old franchises.

Europa Universalis III - Have you ever wanted to control the world around the time that Columbus discovered the new world? Well, you have your chance in Europa Universalis III. No other game has ever given you more depth in every aspect of your triumphant reign over the world that in this last release in the series. If you're a newcomer to the series, don't be dismayed by the learning curve, just spend a little with the instruction because once you pick this game up and really get into what it is to control a culture back in the day, you'll never be able to pull yourself away from the computer. This is one of those games where it's not all about the graphics and that's not to say that the graphics are terrible, just that the developers spent the majority of their time on coding a game filled with depth and TBS fans will appreciate it.

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars – Following up a long line of previous installments in the Command Conquer series, Tiberium Wars had a lot of pressure to be a great game and the developers succeeded. With some great graphics, decent voice, not to mention the funny wanna'be serious movies into between missions played by actors from the previous games, and a storyline that has you guessing what will happen from beginning to end, this game delivers a solid experience that fans of not only the series, but the genre, will be happy with. A multiplayer component that is balanced, quick-paced, and also fun, is added to provided a well rounded experience in this latest installment.

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar - The world that Tolkien created is now online for your enjoyment. That's right, what you read in the books, and what you saw in the movies, it's all here leading up to a certain point in the trilogy and it's only getting bigger. Trying to attract both MMORPG and Lord of The Rings Fans, Shadows of Angmar takes the best of both worlds and puts everything into a very detailed, story driven game, along with some superb graphics that fully illustrate the landscape that Tolkien had created so many years ago. Whether you're a fan of MMORPGs or Lord of the Rings, you'll be pleased with this title. Since launch, Turbine, the developers, have released mass amounts of free content that not only extend the overall storyline, but the territory in which you can explore. One can only think of what they may include in an actual expansion.

Has you seen the horde of demos to hit the scene recently? There seems to be a general output of a demo every 3 days for the past couple of weeks. It's definitely easy enough to just download all these demos and play them through, than buying a game right now, because of the amount of time you can easily pour into all of the types of game demos recently released.

Let's take a look at the list of demos out at the moment. There's demos for some of the bigger releases this year including Unreal Tournmanet 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and today's Hellgate: London. Let's not forget some of the other demos that aren't as hyped coming out soon and releasing their demos recently including Painkiller: Overdose, Clive Barker's Jericho, Strangehold, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and the Timeshift demo. And if you more inclined, you can check out the demo for Hard to be a God. yeah, it's in Russian, but if you mess with the ini file a little bit, you can play it in English, but if you're one of those people who are still pondering what a ini file is as you keep reading, no fear, the developer is releasing an English demo soon enough.

But what does it all mean? This barrage of demos from developers from all corners of the earth, and before I forget, lets not forget one of the most anticipated demos of the year, Crysis, by the German developers Crytek. Just the capabilities that this game can have in the way of graphics is quit astonishing. Regardless of gameplay, you have to give credit to Crytek for once again coming up with a superb engine, much like they did when they first released Far Cry, but back to the importance of demos and the industry that they're in. I've glorified the titan enough for now.

While demos can be a good thing for developers, it can also be one of the worst things for their companies and some have fallen victim to this n the past. Gamers don't really understand the concept of the demo, they believe if the 20 minutes of gameplay that they're subjected to isn't all that they've dreamed of and hyped about for the past 2 years, than it's crap and they'll run to their nearest forums and complain to their hearts content because 20 minutes of the possibly 20 hours of gameplay that the game actually is wasn't complete perfection. And because of this scare of random tennieboppers running to the forums **** and complaining, some developers have decided to pass the chance of letting gamers try out an early release of their titles. And while sometimes you can gage a game's mechanics from the demo, such as the interface, combat, and general ****of play, people must realize that it's only a fraction of the game. it's a demo. And what is the definition of a demo? Well, let's check....

noun
1. a visual presentation showing how something works

Oh yeah, showing how something works....Not the entire presentation, just a fraction. I've seen some pretty crappy demos where the actual game has actually turned out great, but first impressions are a big part of what the business is about and there's a large percentage of gamers who are turned off by the first offense to their gaming time. Time is everything yes, but don't judge a 20 hour endeavor by just 20 minutes of your time. But enough pleading for the time of developers, if you are the way you are, I can't change you by a simple blog post.

Let's take a look at some of these demos, but just a couple because of the time allowed by myself to type Anyway, to my surprise, my favorite demo at the moment has to be the demo for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Infinity Ward simply did a superb job with optimization of their gaming engine with their fourth time around in the Call of Duty series. It just plays well on a host of computers and for people out there who don't have a top of the line computer right now, you can easily crank up a lot of graphic settings to make this creation look great with a decent enough framerate and what I mean with decent enough, is that it runs flawlessly on a lot of the maxed settings on medium computers. And being the first time away from normal everyday World War II setting that every other Call of Duty was in, Modern Warfare is to everyone's surprise a great turn of events in this series to revive it and have it compete with modern FPS's like the Battlefield series. If you get some time, check it out. After Call of Duty 3 only being released for consoles, I was a little leery about their latest release, but with this demo, I'm very much looking forward to their newest installment in the series.

How about that Unreal Tournament 3 demo. Yeah....I wasn't impressed for some reason. No, I'm not being hypocritical by bashing it here on the site. I'm sure the final version is going to be just as good as the previous games, but I guess the graphics didn't immediately catch my eye, like I thought they would, but I'm thinking it's because you can't max out the graphics options that much in the demo because the developers didn't include that option. The more I play, the more I come to enjoy the graphical design that the developer was trying to portray. It's definitely a different ****of graphics, but it seems to fit the setting and the multiplayer in the game is as fun as it ever was as in previous releases, but I think that's it, it seems like the previous releases with more maps and better graphics. Don't get me wrong, Epic really gets the fun of multiplayer right, but the mechanics of the game seem a little stale after this many times with the same gameplay. I am looking forward to the full game though because in multiplayer there's not a whole lot that can compete with the intense carnage that the Unreal Tournament series gives their players. Check it out this season, I just wish they would have made it possible to go cross console with pc players playing console gamers, but that's cool, most people will probably be playing in on their pc.

I do want to bring up one more demo though before I talk your ear off, the demo for Clive Barker's Jericho. This seems like it could be the diamond in the rough for fps gamers alike. The ****of gameplay with the squad based tactics and the storyline done by Clive Barker himself seems to be a great combination. Just from the demo, which has some pretty impressive graphics, you can tell that the setting is gonna be a big part of the game and this is fine with me for sure. The entire setting, background, team-based strategy, squad members, and gameplay seems to be a winner in this years barrage of games coming out this fall. Check it out...

- SadExchange

It seems like there's been a rather large influx of "Top 100 Games of all Time," or something along those lines and many are filled with similar entries, but of course, there's a few that don't make each person's list each time they're made. But how much do you pay attention to this "Top Whatevers?" After speaking with my good friend, DJ IZ, and constantly complaining about every one else's "Top" lists, I've come to the conclusion that I should either make one myself to let you know what is the actually Top 100 Games of all Time, or just tell you why I constantly **** about these lists and I chose the later. Lucky for you.

First off, let's look at "of all time." Really, so, you're saying that we've hit the pinnacle of computer gaming where we won't see any better games out there that will crack this list of 100? Come on, I know we've seen some pretty good games out there to this day including a few of my favorites being, Baldur's Gate II, Planescape: Torment, and Fallout, but you're telling me we won't see anything that might equal some of these ****cs? That's kind of depressing to think about. It makes me want to latch on to the gems in my closet and bookshelf, because once they're gone, that's it. It's over. You've left with crap for all eternity. It's safe to point out that there are quite a few ****c games in the past that are very hard to beat in the fun and gameplay factor, but I think they could be topped someday. Just look on the horizon, we have games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Bioshock just to name a few this year. These titles alone look to be some impressive jaunts through many hours of worthwhile time. And also, the fact is, many creators of these top 100 games are still developing games and I know they still have a lot left in them for creative design.

Lets take a look at who make up these lists. Most list that come out are from different gaming sites across the net and some gaming magazines circulated throughout the world, but is the person or group who comprises the list of games playing every single game out there to make sure they're the best? Now, this might be the pot calling the kettle black, in the respect that I make a top 10 list of pc games each year and obviously I don't play every game of every year, but I'd like to point out that I do play much too many of the crappy ones to know what I'm talking about for the year to make up the best that these is released every 365 days. But these games make lists of 'all time' and including every type of game including PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, Nintendo and their respective systems, etc. The list can go on all the way to the Atari and some lists do in fact do that. That's just quite a lot of games if you were to take a look at just on year, but looking at everything that's been released all the way till this day. Youch, that's quite an endeavor. And even if you had twenty people in your panel of judges, that's still a load of games to cover. And what do you do? Play every game over again before you put together the list to see if they're still enjoyable to this day or believe on your memory. Heck, I bet a lot of gamers react to games like they do to other things in their life.

(Quick tangent) I must say that when I'm reading a book, playing a game, doing something in my life in a point where my lie is going great, my sense of positive ness flows into what I'm doing. I bet if some people would go back to playing some of the older games, they'd find that some of their fun experience of playing their 'most enjoyable game' was partly based upon the fact that they were at a good place in their life. (End Tangent)

It just seems a little unrealistic to believe that even a group of twenty people could cover the amount of games that were in that large of an expanse of time. A little unrealistic to say the least.

Approximately 99% of these lists are not based off of overall sales and that in itself is a good thing. Basing the overall quality of a game off its sales would be utterly wrong in the fact because of pre-advertising and overall commercialization of some games that have come out in the recent past. Some developers have quite a lot of extra money to throw into advertising than others and this hype that builds from the advertising can create sales that wouldn't normally be there in the first place. How many of you have bought a game based on hype and then found out that it was utterly terrible and you never played it again after first installing it? I'd imagine quite a few people have done this with at least one or two games in their libraries of games throughout their systems. So, with not basing the overall top 100 of all time on sales, these groups base it off of their own opinion and you have to take this with a grain of salt, well, maybe a pound of salt in their instance.

So, can you trust these top 100 lists or do you even care? In my opinion, the only reason I spend more than five minutes looking at these lists is to complain about them and complain what's not on them and pretty much ripping my hair out in handful chunks screaming at my monitor. Most times though, I compare these lists with different lists that have come to my attention and see what makes this one and what makes the other one. I guess you have to consider the source of the list. Where it comes from is a big indicator of how well you'll probably take it. If it's coming from a site you trust and have visited quite a lot, you might share some of the same views if that site has persuaded you to their liking throughout the years of you perusing their site. With different gaming sites changing their review systems every few years though, this might be hard to do. Again, with a grain of salt, you can come to your own conclusion of what games might make your 'Top 100' list. My suggestion, go with something a little smaller such as: "Top 20 PC Games from 1990-2000," or "Top 20 PC Role-Playing Games from 1990-2000." This would really let you sync up with the importance of the numbers on your list. And by making these separate lists, you may then come to the conclusion of your Top 100 PC Games or Top 100 PS2 Games, but give them a time limit. Why you ask? Because in another ten years when some pretty awesome games have been released, you won't be stuck with making yourself look like a fool when you're switching games in and out of your Top 100 Games of all Time list. A damn fool indeed! I challenge you to start making lists of your own, with time schedule, and maybe different systems of consoles, and then from there, make an overall list, and see what you come up with and then start comparing them to the list out there and see if they compare. They're all opinions anyway. Make your own, get a website and be somebody in this era of "Everyone's got an opinion and you should listen to it." In the mists of it all, you'll come back to plastiksickness.com and realize that SadExchange was somewhat right and you can be safe in knowing that I'll be staying that way as long as DJ IZ keeps telling me so.

Someday soon, I may put some lists together and we can all match them together and see what we come up with.